Archive for May, 2009

Before we head into the weekend – and Game 1 of the Finals – I figured I would offer one last thing from my interview with Don Waddell this month. By now, you’ve seen the story on the Ilya Kovalchuk negotiations, the final three candidates for the upcoming draft pick and the story on Waddell and his immediate future.

Waddell did offer an interesting take on Kovy as captain and his marked improved play once he was named.

He said: “Kovy took a lot of pride and passion in it. Not that he wasn’t playing that way before. He really took the team atmosphere on his back. But I think it was more important to the other 19 guys. They all knew that we go as Kovy goes. They know that. Here now that had a guy that just by putting that C on his jersey … all these guys can look up and he’s their leader. Everybody has responded to that. A couple years ago if we would have done that, people may not have responded because we had an older team. It being such a young team, the guys look up to him. …

Continue reading Waddell speaks … On Captain Kovy »

I hear you folks. I haven’t gone anywhere. Just jumping between different stories during the offseason. Covered the Braves, covered Tom Glavine’s rehab start and I’ll be at the Falcons OTAs this week.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t any Thrashers coverage. Been keeping track of the Reasoner situation. Also I had a story on the draft in Tuesday’s paper from my interview with Don Waddell. I don’t see that it got posted here, so I’ll include it below.

I’ll have another story on Waddell coming soon, just not sure of the run date yet.

But in the meantime, here’s the draft story:

With the No. 4 overall pick, the Atlanta Thrashers select …
If the Thrashers keep that selection in June’s draft they will likely take one of three players: Matthew Duchene, Brayden Schenn or Evander Kane. That player may well be NHL-ready by next season.
General manager Don Waddell told the Journal-Constitution that he will take the best player available and it will likely be one of those three …

Continue reading Waddell speaks … on the draft »

I’m back, folks. Sorry for the delay but I got caught up in covering the Hawks’ playoff run and the Braves’ Brian McCann’s new glasses. I will be covering some non-Thrasher stories again next week, but we do have hockey to report.
Had a lengthy meeting and interview with GM Don Waddell this week. We talked about many things, including Ilya Kovalchuk, the draft, the goaltending situation, etc. I just finished writing a story on Kovy that will appear in Sunday’s paper. We talked at length about the contract negotiations. Here’s the hook to the story that I can fill you in on: They will not trade Kovy this year. There will be no Marian Hossa drama at the trade deadline.
Here is what Waddell told me: “At this point I can tell you, I’ve discussed it with the ownership, with the coaches, we have no intentions, regardless of what happens this summer with signing him, we have no intentions of trading him. If you trade every player that is going to come up to be an unrestricted free …

Continue reading Thrashers offseason updates »